The Experience
by sss979
Summary: Romana lets her curiosity get the better of her. With some... encouragement. Warning: Tasteful adult content.


**The Experience**

"They're so primitive," Romana observed with fascination as she watched the fire lit dancing and music making all around the enormous pile of limbs and leaves and flame. "But they're so happy."

"They're not _that _primitive," the Doctor pointed out. "They came here in a spaceship, remember."

"Yes, but that was centuries ago. One could hardly tell from current observations."

She paused for a moment to watch a young couple stumble and sprawl, laughing, in the sand. A slight, involuntary smile crossed her face at their glee - like children playing tag. One would think they didn't even realize how silly they looked.

Stranded on this forgotten planet for generations, they had certainly devolved, in a social sense, from the civilization that had stepped off of their ship. They hadn't even retained enough intellectual knowledge to be aware of the danger they now faced as their sun gave its early warning signs of collapse. They knew only that there was a prophecy, somewhere way back in history of a man who would save them when the sky turned to fire, and on these words they lived and died. Living in tents, hunting with bows and arrows, they were as primitive a civilization as she had ever seen. And yet, the Doctor was right. They _had _arrived on this planet in a ship that even seemed capable of advanced warp technology. The race that had built such a machine was in no sense primitive.

"It's as if they've forgotten."

"Forgotten?" the Doctor asked, curiously.

"What they used to be."

"Well, they've certainly adapted."

"Yes, but why? Why choose to adapt to such a primitive existence? Look around you, Doctor. This planet is full of resources with which to make a far more advanced civilization than what they've devolved into."

He raised a brow at her. "And just what's so devolved about them, anyway? Is it simply because they don't shoot each other with stazer weapons and argue over intergalactic politics?"

"No, of course not, Doctor, but just look at them!"

The Doctor leaned forward to avoid being bowled over by a mass of flailing limbs and giggling laughter that nearly ran into him. The child lost her footing, nearly falling into his lap, but regained her balance in time to take off again before the younger girl who was chasing her caught up.

"They don't even seem to realize the full implications of the fact that they face extinction in a mere matter of days! They still sing and dance as if they didn't know at all."

"Well, either that or they simply have great faith in just how clever I am." He shot her a grin, and she rolled her eyes in return.

"Well, if they did, I think it would just further prove my point."

"The way I see it, Romana, these people hardly have a choice. If they're going to live, it'll be through no genius of their own. And if they're going to die, there's nothing they can do about it."

"Resignation to the inevitable is one thing. Celebrating your own impending destruction is quite another!"

"Well..." He smiled as he watched an elderly man rise a bit unsteadily to his feet to dance with a girl no older than five. "What better cause to celebrate than the last opportunity you'll ever have?"

"Well, it's certainly not a bad attitude. In fact, I believe it's rather fantastic. A more advanced civilization would be thoroughly antagonized if there were even a chance of their imminent death."

"Hmm." He smiled to himself. "Perhaps that's why I prefer the less advanced peoples of the universe. One of the reasons, anyway."

His gaze drifted over the crowd, through the music and laughter, in and out of the dancing and running and chasing. Whatever they were using for wine, it seemed to be having quite the effect on some of them. Others, more subdued, merely smiled and watched. He memorized the faces of every one of them. When he left this place, he would probably never see any of them again. But he would always remember them. He would always remember this night.

"There's another example of their primitive behaviors."

The Doctor glanced at her, then at the young, drunk couple she nodded toward. They were hidden in the shadows, wrapped around each other, groping and kissing in a way that would have made any number of species blush. It made him smile to himself. It made Romana's face turn to a look of disgust.

"Public displays of affection brought on by intoxicants. A more civilized people would certainly frown on such behavior."

He laughed loudly at her analysis. "What do you know about public displays of affection?"

She looked at him incredulously. "They do teach courses on the sexual reproduction and mating behavior of diverse species in the Academy, Doctor."

"Oh, yes, of course."

"I am aware of methods utilized by various species for sexual reproduction as well as the types of sexualized behaviors displayed as precursors of copulation between mating organisms."

"Are you really?" He sounded amused.

"In higher species or, rather, species which engage in sexualized behaviors as a form of recreation as well as a means of ensuring the survival of their species, copulation is built upon a foundation of psycho-emotional arousal as well as chemical exchanges of pheromones, loosely defined as 'affection.' Kissing and physically arousing one another are methods of exhibiting said affection. And we are clearly in a public setting. Hence," she gestured toward the couple, "public display of affection. Am I incorrect?"

He smiled at her assessment as he watched the couple with some amusement. "You sound like you took your sexual reproduction classes very seriously."

"I took all of my classes very seriously, Doctor." She smirked at him. "Unlike you."

"Yes," he muttered absentmindedly as he took another drink. "I've always preferred life experience to the classroom."

"Life experience?" she repeated, brow raised. She laughed. "Surely you don't mean you've experimented with _that_ sort of behavior!"

"The Time Lords were sexual beings once."

"Yes, but that was eons ago!"

He glanced at her and looked her up and down briefly, subtly. "We still have all the parts."

She scoffed. "Of course we do. But lacking the biological drive and sensitivity to hormonal fluctuations in a potential mate - pheromones, as it were - what's the point?"

"Well, I suspect the Time Lords would have fallen into your category of a higher species of sexual organisms. Pleasure, perhaps?"

"You suspect?"

He smiled knowingly at her. "Is that curiosity I hear in your voice?"

"Oh, hardly!" She looked away, crossing her arms over her chest to further display her disgust. "The whole thing seems incredibly inefficient and, quite frankly, a little revolting."

"Do you think so?"

"Not to mention the idea of childbirth is unappealing to say the least."

"Quite right," he answered with amusement. "We Time Lords have long ago replaced biology with technological advancement. Why birth a child when you can create one to be exactly as you would like them to be, and skip those early meddlesome years of life?"

"I hardly think -"

"Take that child, for instance, or that one over there." He gestured to the children on various laps and playing in various stages of dress. "Senseless and inefficient."

He raised a brow as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, awaiting her reaction to the subtle sarcasm. A Time Lord who knew him less than she would probably simply agree and move on. But she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, took a moment to determine the seriousness of his words, then worded her response carefully.

"I never said it wasn't interesting, Doctor. Simply that I, myself, am not interested in an exchange of bodily fluids leading to the bloody, painful, degrading experience of bringing a helpless infant into the world. And even if you don't have the experience of childbirth to look forward to, I can't understand why you yourself would be interested in such a... base and uncouth mating ritual."

He leaned back and looked up at the sky, the endless stars drifting off into space. He could try to explain his interest in experiencing other cultures rather than simply watching them, but she wouldn't hear him. The fact that they were having this discussion in the first place made it clear that she couldn't understand. Not yet. These few months of travelling with him had hardly been enough to undo the decades of indoctrination into Time Lord society. Look, but don't touch. See, but don't experience. She was as far from understanding him as the east was from the west.

His gaze caught that of Tamara, the young woman who had been smiling at him since they had arrived. He, for one, had no personal interest in her. But he admired her determination all the same. She'd hardly let him out of her sight, and certainly not let herself out of his. Observant of the social boundaries of her people, she had nevertheless managed to communicate her message to him quite well. The pheromones had been sheeting off of her from the first exchange of names. And her efforts, flattering as they were, made him smile.

"Tamara seems to believe you more human than Time Lord."

"It's an easy mistake to make. Just ask the High Council."

Tamara lifted her glass - a subtle gesture from across the way - and he returned it before taking a drink. With a broad smile, Tamara looked away. Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor saw Romana tilt her head as she pondered the significance of the exchange.

"I certainly hope you didn't just get engaged, Doctor."

"Ah, well. It wouldn't be the first time."

She blinked, startled. "You're not serious!"

He smiled. "It's always tricky when you're dealing with people of various social norms."

"Well, it's pretty obvious you're encouraging her, whatever the expectation."

He leaned back, turning onto his side and propping himself up on his arm. "I'm not encouraging her." He paused and glanced in Tamara's direction again, but she'd moved on. "I'm just not _dis_couraging her. There's a difference."

"How is returning her smiles and gestures not encouraging her?"

"She doesn't need encouragement to smile. She's happy! She loves life!" He smiled as he took another drink. "I happen to think that people like her are the most beautiful things one could witness in this vast, endless universe."

She pondered this for a moment. "I suppose that would be a desirable quality in a person."

"Hmm? What would?"

"Being happy and loving life in spite of everything that is going on around you."

"Yes." He nodded thoughtfully. "I've found that most 'less advanced' cultures are particularly adept at it. Yet another reason why I prefer them over my own."

"Are you implying that Time Lords aren't happy or love life?"

He raised a brow, amused by the question. Did she really have to ask his opinion on that? "You're culturally programmed to turn up your nose at everything you see around you." He gestured at the humans in all stages of disarray and enjoying every moment of it. "It's only your sense of curiosity that keeps you from being fully indoctrinated by the attitude that inferior races are worth cataloguing, but not experiencing. And even that curiosity is something of a newly formed concept in your mind. It wasn't there when you showed up in my Tardis, and proceeded to read me the manual on how to fly it."

She frowned. "Just because we do not dance around fires and drink ourselves silly doesn't mean we aren't happy and love life. Every species has a different concept of happiness."

"Speak for yourself."

"I do."

"And have you ever _tried_ dancing around a fire or drinking yourself silly?"

"Of course not. Why would I?"

"How about simply for the experience?"

"Why would I need to experience that?"

"You don't _need _to. That's precisely the point."

She raised a brow at him. "What are you getting at, Doctor?"

"Must everything in your life be so saturated by that revoltingly superior Time Lord melodrama?"

"Time Lord melodrama!" She laughed at the words, but she was clearly appalled.

"It's not about observing and learning and educating one's self about the experiences of lesser species. For you to be here, to look right at all of these people and see, first hand, what they're all about and to still think that the satisfaction of discovering a new formula or equation could equate with the feelings of joy and love and freedom and lust for life that these people feel..."

He looked away, smiling as he watched the people play and dance to their unnamed games and songs. "You really don't understand anything at all about the universe, do you? None of your people do."

"They're _your _people, too, Doctor."

"Eh, that's a matter of opinion. Personally, I would choose to dance around a fire and drink myself silly any day of the week. And had you ever _truly _experienced this - any of this - you might well say the same. But far be it from a proper, educated, superior Time Lord to engage in such debauchery."

The words were biting although his tone was light - simply stating facts. She stared at him in stunned silence for a moment before finding her words. "Are you mocking me?"

"Of course not," he answered innocently. "What good would come of that?"

"I won't deny that I have seen and experienced many wonderful things since traveling with you that I never would have done had I stayed on Gallifrey. But that doesn't make our ways a bad thing. It simply shows that we may need to... adjust our outlook."

He smirked. "That statement alone is a heresy, coming from a Time Lord."

"Well, I suppose you're a bad influence."

"Heresy is the _least_ of what the Time Lords have accused me of."

"So I've heard."

"Someday, perhaps I'll broaden your mind enough that they'll be able to rightly accuse you of the same things. What do you think of that, huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "You've already broadened my mind, Doctor. I'm just not entirely sure it's for the better."

"And who's to judge that?"

"Myself, obviously."

"Yourself?" He laughed. "Oh, I think not."

"What do you mean?"

"Are you unhappy with what I've shown you?"

"Well, no..."

"The changes you've made, have they been for the worse?"

"No, but that's not the -"

"What have you _really_ lost, Romana?"

"I really haven't lost anything but -"

"Then how could it _not _be for the better?"

She frowned. "Because, Doctor. While I am happy and haven't lost anything, these ways of thinking are all too often juxtaposed with the ways I was taught to think from a young age, and the way my people _still _think. _You _may be content to run away and live your life as a renegade, but I foresee it being an issue sometime in my future if I can no longer think and conduct myself as a proper Time Lord ought to do."

Now it was his time to roll his eyes. "Oh, you will never forget what they expect of you. None of us will. And as long as you can pull off a convincing act, the Time Lords of Gallifrey need never know how truly enlightened you've become."

She frowned, but didn't respond. He smirked as he glanced up at her. "Mind you, travelling with me... certain generalizations are bound to be made whether you experience the universe or not."

"And I am well prepared for said generalizations, Doctor."

"Good. Then there's hope for you yet."

He ignored her sigh of frustration and glanced back over as the couple they had been watching earlier, having finally crossed the line of indecency, pulled each other to their feet and stumbled, kissing and undressing, towards one of the poorly constructed shacks at the tree line. The Doctor watched them go, and laughed heartily at their eagerness. Several centuries had passed since he'd felt that eagerness in himself, but he still remembered it vividly. The desire and the lust, the heat and the passion. He ran his tongue over the inside of his teeth as he remembered, just for a moment, the feel and taste and smell of sex.

"Well, that's certainly interesting."

Startled out of his thoughts, he glanced over at Romana, who was watching him intently. "What is?"

"You. Specifically, your reaction to that couple as they moved their activity indoors." She gave him a moment to respond, but continued when he didn't. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you might actually identify with what it is they're experiencing."

He chuckled. "Oh, come on, Romana. You know me. Would you expect anything less?"

She blinked in surprise at his easy admission. "Those desires were loomed out of the Time Lords long before you existed."

"As a biological necessity, perhaps. But the lack of necessity, of instinct, doesn't necessarily mean the reverse - that either one of us is _incapable_ of experiencing sexual arousal. Or, more to the point, pleasure."

"You have, then? Done that?"

"Of course I have."

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "But why?"

"Why dance around a fire and celebrate the end of the world?" He beamed at her as he gestured loosely at the joyous festivities all around them. "For the experience, Romana. For the sheer hell of it."

She couldn't help but smile slightly. "Is that what everything is to you, Doctor?"

"You should try it sometime."

She gasped. "Doctor!"

"What?"

She eyed him warily, not buying the innocent tone. "What exactly were you referring to?"

"Experiencing life to its fullest! Why?" His smile grew. "What did you _think_ I was referring to?"

"I... Well, I wasn't quite sure. Thank you for clarifying."

Still smiling, he looked away again and sat up as he finished his drink. She was silent, stewing over his words. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as her curiosity warred with common sense. Or, at the very least, what she considered to be common sense.

"So you really... subjected yourself to that simply for the experience of it?" Her brow was furrowed as she asked the question.

He laughed. "Subjected myself to it? Yes, I suppose that's one way of looking at it."

"Well, it may mean nothing to you, but as a proper Time Lord, all of that writhing and grinding and bucking strikes me as something very undignified, not to mention exhausting."

"Yes. But you can't help wondering, can you?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You're curious."

"What would make you say that?"

"Because you're still talking about it."

She straightened a bit, pushing her shoulders back and tipping her chin up in her most dignified pose. "Alright. From a purely scientific standpoint, I am curious. Not in the mechanics but in the psycho-social complexities. Namely, what the appeal could possibly be to someone who's not predisposed to the biological responses that drive sexual organisms towards copulation."

"Well, the initial appeal would be curiosity itself. After that..." He smiled knowingly. "The smell of pheromones, the warmth of intimacy. The feel of full skin on skin contact."

"What's so amazing about that?"

"You dismiss it because you've never felt it. But I knew that for them to keep doing it, for millions and millions and billions of years... there had to be something more to it than a biological necessity. The experience of pleasure. Of lust."

"Lust is a lewd response triggered by a hormonal imbalance and a disproportionate exchange of alpha-androstenol between compatible sexual organisms. You are neither hormonally imbalanced nor subject to the physiological responses of pheromone exchange. Your curiosity may well explain an initial interest in the experience but that you can imply, in retrospect, that you consider the experience to be a positive one - even one worth _repeating_... Now that is intriguing."

"Intriguing," he repeated with an amused smile.

"In making a full assessment of any psychosocial dynamic with which one has no personal experience, one must incorporate as many variables as possible from participants within the society or subculture. Since I hardly think it would be appreciated - or socially appropriate - for me to inquire among the average participants at this gathering, that leaves you."

"Why inquire at all?" he asked, amused. "Are you thinking of participating?"

She scowled. "Doctor, I'm surprised at you."

"Oh, really now, you shouldn't be."

"I am a Time Lord."

"Yes, I'd noticed."

"In case you've forgotten, one of the primary purposes of our existence is to gather as much information as we can about all cultures in order to make informed decisions in intergalactic affairs."

"Of course."

"But sexual relations with other species are strictly prohibited."

"Romana?"

"Yes?"

He smiled, then leaned in closer as if sharing a secret. "I'm a Time Lord."

She leaned back, away from him, eyeing him warily. "Meaning what, exactly?"

His eyes raked her much more noticeably, letting her feel the weight as his smile grew more knowing, drawn into her curiosity like a moth to the flame. It was fascinating to watch from this angle. "It means, Lady Romana, that if you'd care to catalogue an _experience _instead of a secondhand report, I could arrange that. So tell me." He leaned in again, lowering his voice to a whisper as he let his lips just barely brush her ear. "Just how curious are you?"

*X*X*X*

"So what now?" Romana asked, standing in the center of the dimly lit room with her arms across. The curiosity in her eyes seemed at odds with the defensive posture and the amused, not-quite-patronizing smile on her lips. What now, indeed?

The Doctor chuckled quietly, to himself, as he closed the door behind them. There was no lock. With a shack this ramshackle and unsteady, it would hardly serve any purpose. A good gust of wind could've probably blown the whole thing over.

"Shall I undress?"

"Do you want to?" he returned, matching her amused tone.

"Well, I thought that _was _a prerequisite."

"You thought wrong."

She rolled her eyes as she laughed. "Oh, Doctor, I'm not a fool. I fully understand the mechanics of the exchange. It's the psychosocial, chemical reactions that are foreign to me."

"Ah, yes." He sat down in the chair near the door and bent down to remove his boots. "The stuff they can't teach from a textbook. Or see no reason to do."

"Well, if I could learn it from a textbook, I should see no need to be here, now."

He chuckled again. "Oh, Romana, is that really what it's all about?"

"You've piqued my curiosity, Doctor," she answered warily, "nothing more."

"That's not what I meant."

"Oh." She frowned. "Then what did you mean?"

"Well, it's like I said earlier." He stood again, tucking his boots under the chair and removing his scarf and hat. He left both on the chair as he crossed the tiny room, nearer to where she was standing. "It's not about the education. It's about the experience."

She smirked. "I'm willing to accept that the education is _in _the experience, Doctor. Don't push your luck."

"Haven't you ever done anything just for the thrill of it?" he asked, stepping into her personal space. But he didn't touch her. "Just for the sheer adventure of the experience?"

"Of course I have."

"Have you?" he challenged.

Watching her eyes, he raised one hand to lightly trail the backs of his fingers up her side, from her hip all the way to her breast. He stopped short of a touch that might be considered too intimate, and lowered his eyes to his hand as he trailed back down.

"Staying with you after we'd finished our mission with the Key to Time was as much for the adventure and thrill as anything."

He smiled. "Then let this be a part of it."

She chuckled softly. "Trying new things with you always is."

"And have I ever let you down before?"

"Well... there was that one time on -"

"Exactly," he interrupted, his smile knowing as he raised his other hand to caress the side of her face lightly. "I've never let you down."

She returned his knowing smile, but didn't argue. "Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"To be perfectly honest," she lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned in closer to whisper in his ear, "I feel very silly."

"That's alright. I think you're supposed to."

She blinked in surprise, clearly not expecting that. "Am I?"

"I did. My first time."

"Oh? Just how many times have you done this?"

"More than once."

"With different people?"

"A few."

"How many?"

"Rule number one." He leaned in closer to whisper in her ear. "Never bring past lovers into the bedroom. It's impolite."

"Oh, there are rules of etiquette for this type of thing?" she asked, her interest renewed.

"Of course."

"So it's poor taste to discuss the past, but bucking and grinding and groping one's partner is perfectly acceptable?"

"Romana?"

"Yes?"

"Do me a favor."

"Certainly."

"Be quiet."

She smiled, but didn't answer - a gesture of compliance. As he pulled back just enough to look into her eyes, he wasn't smiling. His face was serious, his eyes dark and searching for any hint of arousal or emotion from her. He didn't get it, and he wasn't surprised. But she did allow her smile to fall, watching him expectantly again, with innocent curiosity.

Lightly, reassuringly, he stroked the side of her face with his fingertips, letting his thoughts wander, his mind explore the places of her body that he couldn't see beneath her form-fitting dress. His own instincts and impulses more easily accessible than hers were. Even after all these years, he still remembered the way this felt - the way it would feel - and it took very little effort to draw those memories to the surface. The images and the warmth, the remembrance of how electric and satisfying it all felt. The desire followed the snapshots, a warmth that spread through him slowly as he let his other hand wander - not too fast, never too bold, gently travelling from her side to the cool, soft skin on her arm.

She was still watching him, with quiet fascination and a bit more curiosity as he raised his eyes to hers again and asked in a low whisper, "Do you trust me?"

She must have heard the seriousness in his tone, because she hesitated on her response before nodding, ever so slightly. "Of course I trust you."

He stroked her hair back, leaving his two fingers resting on her temple. It was an unnecessary but intimate gesture. With a soft smile, he leaned in, touching his lips to hers, not quite kissing as he breathed a soft, "Contact."

She hesitated a moment before allowing her eyes to slide closed, opening her mind to him. "Contact."

Words became unnecessary as their thoughts syncopated. He felt her awkward hesitation, the uncertainty of not quite knowing how to proceed. Her curiosity was a sort of morbid fascination in her own mind. But it was curiosity that was very real, nonetheless. He smiled as he took it into himself. In return, he gave her his wandering thoughts and the warm, tingling beginnings of arousal that were settling as his hands continued slowly up and down her sides. Lips still resting lightly against hers, it was only a slight push forward to kiss her, closed lips against hers, coaxing her gently until she was returning the kiss.

"Oh!" she exclaimed as a particularly vivid sensation - a memory without the picture to accompany it - crossed into her field of awareness. "That's..."

He smiled against her lips, letting his fingers trail lightly over her back, caressing her softly through the thin, silky material of her dress. She shivered noticeably as the sensation became her own - a physical counterpart to everything she was feeling from him, like a puzzle with the missing pieces inserted. Her breath caught as he gently brushed the back of her neck.

"Those instincts," he whispered into her mouth, "the capacity for arousal and for pleasure... they're not dead. They were never _removed _from our bodies. But they've been so long in disuse, so dormant for so many thousands of generations, that rediscovering them is like opening your eyes for the very first time and discovering that the world is not at all as you imagined it to be."

Her breathing was heavier as he pressed his mouth to hers again, this time opening her slowly. She hesitated, but only for a moment before her lips parted, granting him access. Arms slipping around her waist, he pulled her closer until their hips were flush against each other. He knew she could feel him through the slacks, his body just beginning to respond to the warm, building sensations. He felt her flash of confusion, then realization; apprehension, then embarrassment. And she felt the heat that was spreading through him as he breathed in deep, drawing in the scent of her pheromones.

"Do you smell that?" he whispered, letting his hands wander over her back, her sides.

"Yes," she admitted softly. "What is it?"

"That's you." He held her waist as he dropped his head to kiss and suck at her neck. "The scent of pheromones... arousal..."

"Oh." She paused. "It's very... different than I expected."

He smiled as she tipped her head away to give him greater access.

"You know, this really is nothing like the mating ritual described in the textbooks."

"Oh?"

"Does it always feel like this?"

"That depends on who's doing it."

"It's... quite fascinating." She paused to evaluate the sensations, the excitement that was slowly becoming as much a part of her as him. "I've never felt anything like it."

"Do you still feel silly?"

"A bit," she admitted. "But only when I think about what we must look like right now. Two Time Lords, behaving this way..."

"That's part of the thrill."

"Is it?"

"The mutual trust. The freedom to do things you might never admit to, much less do, in public. And to know that the secret is safe."

"Secret?" she repeated curiously. "Surely it's no secret to them what goes on in bedrooms where men and women share a bed."

"Shh..." Her curiosity was distracting her, and he wasn't nearly finished with her yet.

"Sorry."

He smiled as he leaned in close again, lips against her ear as he whispered softly, "Touch me."

"Where?"

"Anywhere you'd like."

She hesitated a moment before pressing both palms against his chest.

"Explore what's different," he coaxed. "And what's the same."

She laughed softly. "Doctor, I'm not a fool. I know in what ways our bodies are different."

"The _experience_, Romana..."

She paused for a long moment, then slowly moved her hands up to his shoulders, beneath his jacket. He smiled at her touch, the way her fingers hesitated as they brushed warm skin on his neck. Smiling to himself, he drew her earlobe between his teeth and pulled gently, eliciting a soft gasp of surprise and delight.

As her touch moved slowly along his shoulders, he rolled them back, allowing the jacket to slide down his arms. He tossed it aside without looking to see where it landed and bent, just slightly, to set his hands low on her hips. He brought them up slowly, drawing her silky dress with them until he was able to finally curl his fingers under the hem and caress warm, soft skin.

She gasped.

"Doctor?"

He smiled as he traced inward, and she parted her legs just slightly for his touch. "Yes?"

"Might this be the point where we... undress?"

He could feel the scenarios playing out in her mind - the swarm of feelings and sensations. There were no pictures, only arousal at its most basic, instinctive form. Chemical reactions and curiosity, heat and passion and bonding trust. His smile widened at her breathless question, and he pulled away just enough to see the look in her eyes.

"Do you want to?"

"Yes."

This time, there was no hesitation to her answer, and the emotion and desire he'd been searching for earlier was now written clearly all over her face. Whether she'd found those instincts buried way down deep inside of her or she was merely reciprocating the overabundance of sensation he was offering from his own mind, he couldn't be sure. But he suspected that feeding off of his pleasure had awakened everything in her that was still capable of feeling this way.

Taking a step back, he lifted the dress slowly, past her hips, her stomach, the slight swell of her breasts. She shivered as the fabric slid lightly over sensitized skin, and raised her arms as he pulled it over her head. He dropped it on the floor before letting his eyes run over her from head to toe. He could feel her confidence and her curiosity, and it made him smile as he reached out to slowly trace a finger from her throat, between her naked breasts, all the way to her navel.

"Beautiful," he whispered appreciatively.

She smiled as she reached for him, unbuttoning his vest, then the shirt beneath it. At the first touch of her gentle fingers on his skin, his breath caught. She paused for a moment, absorbing the flood of hypersensitive reaction, then slowly continued, stripping him from the waist up before she leaned in closer, pressing her body against his.

The sudden warmth and intimacy of full skin-on-skin contact made him moan softly, almost involuntarily. The sound that came from deep in her throat was very much the same. He held her tightly, moving his hands slowly up her back, all the way to her shoulders, claiming her mouth in a deep, probing kiss. She melted into him, her body moulding against his.

The hyper-awareness of her, feeling an answering Time Lord mind in an open connection, was an entirely new experience for him. In his relatively few sexual encounters, he had pulled his desire first from an awareness of his partner's pleasure, and later from a memory of his own. But to feel both in such intensity, an exchange of action and reaction, cause and effect in rapid succession, his and hers... It took his breath away. He didn't have to seek out her mind, to probe and prod and tap the particular emotions he was looking for. She was projecting them, her mind open and vulnerable, filters and defenses long gone on the open channel between them. All she was feeling and all she was thinking was his to experience. The confusion and the awakenings of desire, the very first awareness of pleasure and intimacy. He felt it all.

But it was more than that, too. Her mind was just as powerful as his own. She felt and smelled and tasted everything just as intensely as he did - from the bitter salt of pheromones on her tongue to the slow turn of the planet beneath their feet. Every beat of their hearts, marking time until the inevitable rise of the dangerous sun, and every drop of perspiration in the room that felt exactly three degrees warmer than it had when they'd stepped inside. His awareness of the world around him, combined with hers, was magnified exponentially - an overload of sensory input that was in and of itself euphoric.

As her hands moved to the front of his slacks, he could feel his patience waning. He moved his hands down, lifting her against him as he whispered in her ear, "Put your legs around me."

She complied without hesitation, holding his shoulders for balance and locking her ankles behind his back. He turned and pushed her against the wall, gently but quickly. The wall gave her something to push against, and she arched her back, raising her breasts closer to his exploring mouth.

His pulse was racing, blood burning in his veins with every beat of his hearts as he envisioned that moment of pure pleasure, sliding into her tight, hot sheath. His thoughts made her gasp, and her grip on his shoulders tightened, nails biting into flesh. He smiled. He knew that any pleasure experienced would only lead to more pleasure. But as he felt her tremble with the excitement and uncertainty of not knowing - a freefall into the world of strange and unfamiliar sensation - he felt it in a way he'd never imagined.

"How does it feel?" he asked, anticipating the increase in sensation as she focused on it. She would have to do, in order to form a response.

"Empty," she answered breathlessly.

"Empty?" That was not the answer he'd been expecting.

"Yes." She opened her eyes to see him, mouth against his. "And I want it full."

It took him a moment to grasp her meaning, and he laughed deeply as he kissed her again.

"Please," she gasped, pressing her hips to his. "Doctor..."

He turned, pulling her away from the wall and crossing the few steps to what looked like a bed. He was careful not to crush her as they fell in a tangle of limbs, both pulling and pushing at his slacks until he was free of them. He drew the last scrap of her clothing down her impossibly long legs with enforced patience, then slowly kissed his way back up, lying over her. Skin on skin, hard on soft, texture on smoothness... Her legs parted wide for him and her scent increased tenfold. He drew it in, dizzy with the swirl of pleasure it elicited from somewhere deep inside of him.

"That's..." She arched her back as she breathed in deep. "Amazing..."

Kissing her deeply, he found her hands and held them both to the straw mattress on either side of her head. Her legs were locked around his waist again, and he could feel the heat of her sex on his.

"This may hurt," he warned as he pressed forward slowly, as gently as he could.

"I don't care."

No pain crossed her face, or her thoughts, or his awareness. He pressed forward, one slow inch at a time until he was buried to the hilt inside of her warm, welcoming body.

"Oh, Doctor... It's..."

He couldn't speak. He couldn't even think. His mind was a wash of white noise, jumbled and confused but oh, so beautiful. This experience, with her, was nothing even remotely resembling the love he'd felt when he'd first been this close to a woman. But at the same time, it was more intense than he ever could've imagined. To meet her mind halfway, to feel her pleasure with her acute senses, just as he felt his own... For just a moment, it was impossible to tell where he ended and she began. Their minds were the same, their bodies joined in mutual pleasure and immeasurable sensation, the exchange of thoughts and emotions and feelings unlike anything he had ever experienced or even thought possible. And as he moved his hips ever so slightly on hers, he could already feel the tide pulling out, the wave building.

"Romana?"

"Doctor?"

Gasping for breath, he pressed his mouth to hers before speaking. "I'm afraid this may be a somewhat abbreviated lesson."

"What do you mean?"

Hips moving now in a rhythm that felt as old and imperative as time itself, he didn't try to hold back the release as it came. "I mean... I can't..."

She gasped as she felt it, too - a sharp intake of breath that she held as his eyes rolled back. He gripped her hands tighter as he released inside of her with a guttural cry, and heard her whimper as his release triggered hers. His fingerprints on her mind proved a more powerful tool than any technique known to ordinary men...

The muscles in her thighs tensed, tightening her legs around him, and he groaned as he felt everything all at once. Then, shaking with pleasure and gasping for breath, he finally collapsed on top of her, bracing his weight just enough to keep from crushing her. He could hear her gasping, soft and feminine as her muscle spasms subsided. The aftershocks made him quiver, hypersensitive and hyperaware of the pleasure that was slowly receding.

Finally, he rolled to his side, withdrawing from her mind and pulling her close to his chest. For a long moment, she said nothing. Then, finally, she spoke in a whisper.

"Doctor?"

"Hmm?"

"I forgot to ask. Does this... mean anything?"

He didn't answer. He was still trying to put his thoughts in order.

"Some species," she continued, still a little shaky, "mate for life."

He would've chuckled at that, but he had very little energy to do so. "Do you feel mated for life?"

"Not particularly."

"Me neither."

"But I do feel incredibly good."

He smiled as she tucked her head under his chin and kissed his throat. "I'm glad it was educational."

"I may need another lesson at some point."

This time, he did manage a quiet laugh. As he buried a hand in her dark hair, he pulled her closer, kissing her brow softly. "Anytime, Lady Romana," he answered quietly. "Anytime."


End file.
